Jones, Christopher

Jones, Christopher on the DRL

Authors of English Works • Other Researchers

Christopher V. Jones

English Phonetics	Christopher V. Jones

Tibetan calendar dates

Dates of birth

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

Dates of passing

Day
Month
Gender
Element
Animal
Rab Jyung

About

Primary Language:	English

Primary Affiliation (Workplace)

University of Oxford

Current projects

The tathāgatagarbha literature in India, China, and Tibet.

PhD University

University of Oxford

Education

Ph.D.

Biographical Information

Chris Jones completed doctoral research at the University of Oxford (St Peter’s College) in 2015, with a thesis that explored the language of selfhood (ātman) in relation to teachings about buddha-nature in Indian Buddhist literature. The thesis was awarded the Khyentse Foundation Award for outstanding doctoral research produced in Europe, and was the foundation for his first monograph – The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman. Jones spent three further years researching and teaching at Oxford as a Postdoctoral Fellow of the British Academy, and is now on a UK Arts and Humanities Research Project connected to the University of Cambridge, associated also with the University of Edinburgh. His continuing research concerns predominantly Mahāyāna Buddhist thought as preserved across Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan literature, as well as the boundaries and interactions between Buddhism and other religious traditions in India and elsewhere. (Personal Communication, September 2021])

Publications

• Beings, Non-Beings, and Buddhas: contrasting notions of tathāgatagarbha in the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa and *Mahābherīsūtra. 2016. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, vol.10, pp.53-84.

• A Self-Aggrandizing Vehicle: tathāgatagabha, tīrthikas and the true self'. 2016 [2017]. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, vol.39, pp.115-170.

• Translating the Tīrthika: An Enduring ‘Heresy’ in Buddhist Studies. (forthcoming) 2018. In Alice Collett (ed.), Translating Buddhism: Collected Essays on Translation Theory and Practice (South Asia), SUNY Press.

• Selfhood and Secrecy: Tathāgatagarbha Doctrine in the Mahāparinirvāṇamahāsūtra. (forthcoming) 2018. In Mark Blum & Masahiro Shimoda (eds.), volume on the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra, Hamburg University Press.

• "Reconsidering the 'Essence' of Indian Buddha-Nature Literature." In "What is Tathāgatagarbha: Buddha-Nature or Buddha Within?" Edited by Saitō Akira. Special issue, Acta Asiatica 118 (2020): 57–78.

• The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2020.

Links

Wiki Pages

• Jones, Christopher on the DRL
• Jones, Christopher on the LIB
• Jones, Christopher on the BNW

Buddha Nature Project

Person description or short bio

Expand to see this person's philosophical positions on Buddha-nature.

Is Buddha-nature considered definitive or provisional?
Position:
Notes:
All beings have Buddha-nature
Position:
If "Qualified", explain:
Notes:
Which Wheel Turning
Position:
Notes:
Yogācāra vs Madhyamaka
Position:
Notes:
Zhentong vs Rangtong
Position:
Notes:
Promotes how many vehicles?
Position:
Notes:
Analytic vs Meditative Tradition
Position:
Notes:
What is Buddha-nature?
Position:
Notes:
Svātantrika (རང་རྒྱུད་) vs Prāsaṅgika (ཐལ་འགྱུར་པ་)
Position:
Notes:
Causal nature of the vajrapāda
Position:

Buddha-nature, literally the "womb/essence of those who have gone (to suchness)."

Though it can simply be used as the expression "I" or "me", in Indian thought the notion of self refers to a permanent, unchanging entity, such as that which passes from life to life in the case of people, or the innate essence (svabhāva) of phenomena.

Mahāyāna, or the Great Vehicle, refers to the system of Buddhist thought and practice which developed around the beginning of Common Era, focusing on the pursuit of the state of full enlightenment of the Buddha through the realization of the wisdom of emptiness and the cultivation of compassion.

State University of New York

Refers to something that is taught for a specific reason, rather than because it is entirely true.

Along with Madhyamaka, it was one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Asaṅga and Vasubandhu around the fourth century CE, many of its central tenets have roots in the Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra and the so-called third turning of the dharma wheel (see tridharmacakrapravartana).

Along with Yogācāra, it is one of the two major philosophical schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism. Founded by Nāgārjuna around the second century CE, it is rooted in the Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, though its initial exposition was presented in Nāgārjuna's Mūlamadhyamakakārikā.

The state of being devoid of that which is wholly different rather than being void of its own nature. The term is generally used to refer to the ultimate, or buddha-nature, being empty of other phenomena such as adventitious defiling emotions but not empty of its true nature.

The state of being empty of self, which references the lack of inherent existence in relative phenomena.

Tsen Khawoche's "meditative tradition" of exegesis of the Uttaratantra; it is one of two major Tibetan traditions of exegesis, both stemming from students of Sajjana.